


As the Rain Falls

by BlackCats



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 12:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5248616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCats/pseuds/BlackCats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jaune sees Pyrrha's face is on every cereal box in Beacon's dining hall, and it seems an awful lot like fate agreeing with the fact that he should continue their daily training...either that, or she's just a part of his daily balanced breakfast. <br/>Maybe both.<br/>(Pyrrha, Jaune, and a rainy morning a bit different than the others.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the Rain Falls

The sounds of clinking forks and excited chatter filled the dining hall as the students of Beacon began their morning with a hearty breakfast—it was the most important meal of the day, or at least, that was what Pyrrha had continuously heard during the course of her training. Normally the natural light of the sun would serve to illuminate the massive room, courtesy of some truly generous windows that lined each wall, but the heavy presence of rainclouds meant that electricity would have to step in to pick up the slack for now. The air was thick and warm with the scents of coffee and bacon, and it seemed as if every table within sight had a certain box of cereal somewhere upon it…

Speaking of.

Pyrrha arched her eyebrows as Jaune gasped at her side, turning around in his seat to follow the path of a Faunus student’s breakfast tray as she went to take a seat. However, it wasn’t the Faunus that had caught his attention.

“I-Is that… _it is!_ When did—“

A sharp pivot, and Jaune was facing forward again, his hands braced against the table as he scanned the room.

“Pyrrha! You’re on the boxes of Fasty-O’s too?!”

“…Oh.” She followed his gaze, a forkful of pancake halfway to her mouth. “I’d completely forgotten I posed for that photo! It’s nice to see it’s being put to good use. Fasty-O’s are a lot healthier than Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes.”

“You _forgot?_ How do you _forget_ posing to be on the box of the biggest cereal chain known to man?!”

A polite clearing of the throat from a nearby table snapped all of Team JNPR’s heads toward the source—the Faunus girl from before.

“ _And_ Faunus!” Jaune was quick to amend, earning a pleased nod from the girl.

“Hmm…I’m actually not that big a fan of Fasty-O’s?” Nora chimed in as she poured a waterfall of syrup across her pancakes. “I mean, you know, they’re kinda like _old people’s_ food. They don’t really have all that much flavor unless you _drown_ them in sugar.”

“Like you’re drowning those pancakes?” said Ren.

“Yep!”

“But they’re good for you,” Pyrrha pointed out. “They’re a great source for fiber and whole-wheats. It’s because that I ate them nearly every day that I was offered a cover deal to start with.”

Ren took a sip of his orange juice. “Hm. The frosted variant is fine.”

“Ohh right, the frosted ones are—“

Jaune waved his hands, interrupting Nora’s thoughtful spiel. “It’s _not about_ if it’s healthy or not! Pyrrha’s on every box of Fasty-O’s here!”

Ren and Nora exchanged a look as Pyrrha bit back a chuckle, hiding it behind one hand.

“ _Fasty-O’s_ ,” Jaune said again in a disbelieving whisper as Pyrrha cut in.

“Jaune, is it really that impressive to you?”

He faced her so fast that he nearly sent his plate of eggs flying. As if sensing danger, Coco Adel preemptively sidled to the far side of her seat on the other end of the room.

“Of _course_ it’s impressive! _You’re_ impressive! Your face is on cereal boxes, you’ve been on TV, you’ve won four Mistral tournaments in a row…I can’t even imagine doing that kind of stuff so frequently that I’d _forget_ I had my face slapped on the cover of every Fasty-O’s in Remnant!”

Though respect and adoration was nothing new to her, Pyrrha’s modest smile grew warmer at that look of earnest admiration in his eyes. He thought she was amazing.

Even if he was the only person in the world who did, that would be enough.

Meanwhile Nora was chattering to Ren as she _still_ slathered her third helping of pancakes in syrup.

“What was the jingle again…was it something like, _‘If you’ve got to breakfast fast, Fasty-O’s will fill to last!’_ ”

Ren shook his head. “That was the jingle from ten years ago. They’re using that rapping dog mascot now, remember?”

“Oh yeahhh,” Nora groaned, slumping over dangerously close to her plate.

Jaune had his arms folded upon the table, his meal forgotten as he gazed at Pyrrha’s smiling face, winking at him from every corner of the hall. He let out a great sigh.

“And you did this all on your own…”

She let the silence between them hang for a few moments more—the way she downed her glass of milk was a pensive gesture in itself—before breaking it.

“Jaune,” she prompted, gentle. “We have practice today. Remember?”

He startled. “Oh…Oh yeah.”

Pyrrha put down her fork. “And I didn’t become ‘famous’ all on my own. I had help. _Plenty_ of help. There’s absolutely _nothing wrong_ with admitting that.”

_You’re amazing just as you are, Jaune._

Those words pushed to the edge of her tongue, but she swallowed them down, showing a smile instead. She watched the doubt flee Jaune’s eyes, only to be replaced with a steely resolve.

“…Right. Right. That’s right!” Clenching a fist, he lifted it high. “There’s still time for me to be a great Hunter!”

“You already _are_ a great Hunter,” Pyrrha said.

“A _good_ Hunter,” Nora corrected, casting Ren an apologetic shrug when he elbowed her. “B-But you’re definitely getting there! You’ve _seriously_ gotten better since that whole Deathstalker business on the first day! And you’re _a-ma-zing_ at planning things!”

“That’s true,” Ren added, ever calm.

“See? You’re improving. You’ve made wonderful progress so far and I know you’ll only continue to get better from here.” Dropping a napkin onto her plate, Pyrrha got to her feet. “Are you ready to go?”

Jaune looked like he was about two seconds away from bursting into tears. “You guys are seriously just…the _greatest_. Let’s put a group hug on the agenda later.”

Ren quickly said, “I’m good.” at the same time that Nora broke into laughter. It didn’t take long for Pyrrha to join her.

"Thanks guys. Thanks." Casting his teammates a wry smile, Jaune waved and stood up, addressing Pyrrha next. “Well… _anyway_. What’re we up to today?”

Jaune and Pyrrha bid the other two members of JNPR goodbye as they made their way out of the dining hall. Pyrrha took another look at the gray sky as they passed by an enormous window, humming for a moment.

“It looks like it’s starting to drizzle…You know, now would be a good time to teach you about fighting in the rain. It’s all about keeping your footing and making judgment calls on how the water will affect your friction with the ground, along with your opponent's.”

Matching her long strides, he nodded. “Gotcha. So if I’m running all over the place carrying sharp objects, I _really_ don’t want to slip and fall, right?’

She chuckled. “Right, Jaune.”

“I’ve got it memorized,” he promised with a grin. “So have you…ever…fought in the rain before, or was it all part of a battle simulation? You know, like premade terrains.”

Pushing open the heavy doors and facing the blast of chilly air, Pyrrha replied with: “Hmm…a few times. Unless your Semblance works with electricity, what you _really_ want to watch out for are thunderstorms. Let’s just say it’s not recommended for anyone to be waving tall, metal weaponry around when there’s lightning overhead.”

“Ouch. Sounds like you’re talking from experience. Has it happened to anybody you know?”

“Yes, actually. An old classmate of mine at Sanctum.”

“That must’ve been pretty…shocking.”

Pyrrha gave him a playful scowl for the pun; Jaune only rubbed the back of his neck with a smile.

The rain had left a fine, moist sheen on every surface of the courtyard Pyrrha had chosen for their practice bout. Fighting on the rooftop balcony didn’t seem like the brightest of ideas at the moment—she had a mental image of one of them slipping and flying over the rails—so they’d have to make do with this out-of-the-way stretch of grass between a storage building and a seldom-used janitorial complex. Since Hunters would most likely be tracking their prey through the wilderness, a field demonstration experienced on damp grass would be for the best.

They’d brought their weapons with them. Pyrrha took up a standard combat stance as Jaune activated his shield, sliding it into place on his arm. She watched him adjust his posture so that he was standing _just_ right, with _just_ the right amount of distance between her and him, and with _just_ the kind of expression a studious pupil should possess. He really did take all of her lessons to heart.

Pyrrha was smiling before she had even begun to speak.

“Jaune, press your foot into the grass and move it along just like this…do you feel how easily it slides?”

She went on to explain the finer aspects of friction and momentum, bringing the conversation around to cover the points of how an opponent’s Semblance might utilize the rain, and how to best counter those sort of things. There was even an added note on how some Faunus opponents could be capable of seeing through heavy showers that would have otherwise blinded a human.

Upon receiving confirmation from him that he understood her lesson, Pyrrha drew herself up.

“Except for the rain, this will be the same as all the other ones, all right, Jaune?”

“Got it!”

There was something about him…A pull in his shining blue eyes brought her gaze over to lock with his, captivating in its intensity. Whenever he gave her that sort of look, with his shield and his sword drawn and a serious clench to his jaw, Pyrrha knew. She _knew_.

He had the potential to be a truly prestigious Hunter. She would love nothing more than to see him reach that dream.

…Back on track.

Her voice was soft. “Then let’s begin.”

Pyrrha and Jaune circled one another a few times, never breaking eye-contact. There was often only a split-second’s notice before an opponent moved, and Pyrrha hoped she had done well in teaching him how to see those signs.

He suddenly went on the offensive with a quick series of steps forward; a feint to his left, and then an overhead swing with his sword toward Pyrrha’s head—it was all with the flat of the blade, not the edges. No lasting harm would be done.

…If he ever made contact with her.

With a flick of Miló, Pyrrha deflected the attack and aimed to sweep his feet out from under him, intending to use the slippery grass to her advantage. If he didn’t make the right kind of evasive maneuver, he could easily—ah, but he did! Her heart soared with pride as he dodged out of the way with firm strides instead of a quick jump, just as she had showed him; a moment later and Jaune was pressing the attack again, trading blows and parries with her that made the metal of her hoplon tremble with each and every strike.

At one point their blades were locked against one another, with each straining for the upper-hand. Jaune had a great deal more physical strength than one would expect from looking at him, and with Pyrrha unable to properly lock her stance against the ground, she was surprised to find a considerable amount of strain pressing against her muscles, drawing her shoulders taut as they battled for dominance.

And she…kept getting… _distracted_.

Jaune’s teeth were gritted and his eyes narrowed—it was so, _so_ good to see him feeling confident, feeling like he could actually _do_ something, because she _knew_ he could. It was why she was more than willing to show him the ropes that he had never before learned how to identify, let alone climb. It was why she was out here with him now instead of holed up someplace warm.

_You’re doing so_ well _, Jaune!_

She thought this even as she redoubled her efforts, caught him off-guard, and sent him staggering back. Pyrrha lunged in swiftly for the proverbial kill, passing through a series of smooth forms before readying herself for the coup-de-grace—

Jaune found his balance.

His feet repositioned themselves to halt his stumbling retreat; turning hard to the side, his shield swinging up to block her would-be finishing blow, Jaune pressed the advantage afforded by surprise. He flipped his sword around and pounced forward with a _beautifully_ executed side-swipe that surely would have at least knocked her down…

Unfortunately for him, the rain-slick grass caused his left foot to slip out from under him and he went flying straight into her with a girlish yelp. Pyrrha probably would have merely steadied him if it wasn’t for the fact that her own shock (and the terrain) made catching a guy with heavy steel equipment impossible.

So they both went down on the ground in a heap (mercifully without anyone getting cut) and they laid there in a stunned silence for a time. Overhead, the clouds were turning dark as thunder rumbled in the distance.

Pyrrha wasn’t sure who started it, but _somebody_ laughed, and soon they both were fighting for air for entirely different reasons as they laid sprawled near each other in an undignified heap. The rain was less chilling now and more soothing, since it washed away the heat and exertion from the bout.

It was only after the chuckles had petered out that Pyrrha noticed Jaune’s hand was curled around her wrist. Her heart thumped at the gentle pressure of his fingers against her skin…hopefully he’d blame her jumping pulse on the aftermath of the battle. She craned her head back to try and see his expression, catching only the edges of his eyes and the happy flush to his face.

“Okay, so, _that_ could have gone better,” Jaune sighed, sarcastic. “I was _almost_ cool, right?”

“Almost,” Pyrrha agreed, voice warm with amusement. “Sorry, I _did_ try to catch you...”

“Hey, it’s not _your_ fault I’m such a klutz. I even tried to pull us _backwards_ , so at least you wouldn’t be crushed by six feet of blonde loser.”

“Did you want to be crushed by six feet of 'redheaded loser' instead?”

He grinned at her. “There’s worst ways for a guy to go.”

What a dork. Pyrrha let out a breathy laugh.

“Well, I can’t argue with that.”

Jaune squeezed her wrist once—Pyrrha wondered at that, resisting the urge to grab his hand—and rolled to his feet, helping her up as he did so. They were both grass-stained and wet, growing steadily colder thanks to the increase of rain, and filled with too much humor to concentrate. Pyrrha sheathed her weapons and pondered about what to do next.

“It sounds like lightning’s on the way. We’ll have to postpone any further lessons for now.” She hesitated, but added, “You’re free to go if you’d like, Jaune.”

Mercifully, he _did_ pick up on that bit, for once. He gave her a curious look. “What about you? You’re not intending to just stand here in the rain, right?”

“Not _in_ the rain. I actually think it’s a little relaxing to listen to, so I was going to go sit someplace covered and watch it for a while…you can come with me, if you’d like.”

Smooth. Pyrrha knew it was a silly invitation, not the kind of thing anyone should invite another to do with them, but it was a heartfelt thing. Something she enjoyed, and something she wanted to share with him.

She resisted the urge to hold her breath, exhaling slowly instead.

“Sure,” he agreed, easily, almost… _eagerly_. She tried not to read too much into it. “Just let me run to the student lounge real quick and I’ll get us something warm to drink! You like your coffee with two spoons of sugar, right?”

He remembered? Funny how such a tiny detail made her heart skip again. Pyrrha knew talking him out of this wasn’t going to work, so she went along with it.

“Yes, that’s right. Thank you, Jaune. I’ll be right over here when you get back.”             

“Gotcha. I’ll be back before you even miss me.” He put on a cheeky smile and made two finger pistols at her, though his attempt at being smooth was undermined by the fact that he was walking backwards into the shower; he promptly lost his footing again, hitting the ground in a thump.

Pyrrha winced, ducking beneath a nearby covered porch. “Are you all right?”

“Pfft, I’m fine!” he called back, though she saw him wince when he rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll be right back, seriously, no time at all!”

She waved after him and smiled as he jogged off, bringing her fisted hand to her chest soon after and casting her eyes downward.

_Maybe today’s the day I’ll tell him. It really would be the perfect time._

Thunder grumbled, still far off. Pyrrha sat down on a nearby table and watched the rain form rivulets along the buildings, cascading down in clear, miniature waterfalls that looked as if they could wash away all the troubles in the world.

~***~

When Jaune came back, he brought along a friend.

Pyrrha soon realized that Jaune didn’t even know Nora was there. The other girl was shooting from one location to another, practically a blur as she spied on the two of them. Her positioning made it so that she was behind and thus invisible to Jaune, but easily within sight of Pyrrha. This produced a single thought, though not without amusement.

_I have a bad feeling about this._

“Aaand here we are! One coffee for you…” He passed her a plastic cup. “And one cocoa for me!”

He took a seat beside her along with a hearty swig of his drink, gasping a moment later about how hot it was.

_Hot chocolate…how cute…_

Wrapping her fingers around the blessed warmth of her coffee, Pyrrha took a sip. It really was made just the way she liked it. She did her best to tune out Nora for now and simply focused on the fact that she was with Jaune, and they were having some quality time together that didn’t involve combat practice.

“Oh wait, I’ve got something else…ta-dah!” He produced a polka-dotted umbrella with a flourish. “See, my mom didn’t believe me when I said it’d come in handy one of these days.”

“How wrong she was,” Pyrrha said, chuckling. “Thanks, Jaune.”

Nora was making some kind of weird gesture…She spared her a glance but focused on Jaune again an instant later.

“Not a problem!” he said. “At least now whenever we go back inside, it won’t be like wading through a small river back to the dorms.” Tucking the umbrella back at his side, Jaune faced her again and gave a soft smile. “By the way. You said you like to listen to the rain, right? Does it remind you of home or something?”

Pyrrha’s eyes wandered. “No…this brand of coffee makes me think of home more than the rain does. It’s just…something about the sound. It’s quiet, a whispering almost, and the world seems so much softer when everything is blurred like this…snow’s the same way, although you can’t hear it.”

She spent a few moments gazing at the mist created against the tiles by the storm. A sudden prick of self-consciousness sent her head down, the edges of her lips turning up in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“What? No, not at all.” He looked where she had looked, trying to see it as she did. “I mean, I asked you for a reason. I think that’s pretty cool. Rain kinda…well…I used to be scared of thunder when I was little. I thought it was a _giant_ Grimm roaring.” He made claws out of his fingers, jabbing them downwards a few times. “’ _Grr, grr’_ , you know?”

“Jaune.” Pyrrha gave him a long stare. “That’s so cute.”

A blush immediately shot up to color his ears. “ _Whaaat?_ No. _No_ way. It’s embarrassing…”

“But you still told me,” she pointed out.

“Well, you sorta already know the worst things about me.” He shrugged, breaking eye-contact but returning it an instant later. The blush had spread to his cheeks. “I feel like I could tell you anything, and you’d still not call me a _total_ loser.”

“You’re not a loser, Jaune,” she said quietly. “Not at all.”

“Pyrrha, you are seriously just…you’re always…” The hand not holding his cocoa had clenched tight. “You’re always amazing, okay? No matter what.”

Pyrrha looked down again, brushing a strand of hair behind her ears, feeling quite…shy. A glance over Jaune’s shoulders—he looked just as embarrassed—revealed that Nora was still making those odd movements with her hands, and she—

Pyrrha nearly choked on her coffee.

“H-Hey, are you okay?” Jaune nearly knocked the patio chair over as he leapt to his feet.

She waved him back down, wincing at her scalded tongue. “I-It’s nothing, sorry, don’t worry about it, Jaune.” Quickly scooting to the side, she pointed at a vague location behind her. “Did you see anything moving over there just now?”

“…Huh? Something moving? I dunno, let’s see…”

As he busied himself with peering behind her, Pyrrha glared over Jaune’s shoulder and had an entire conversation with Nora over just what the other girl had been _implying_ this entire time.

_“I can’t kiss him now!”_ Pyrrha mouthed.

Nora poked her head out from behind a statue and mouthed back, _“Yes you can! All you have to do is go for it!”_

_“Now is not the time!”_

_“Now’s the_ perfect _time!”_

_“Nora, thank you, but I really don’t need any advice right now.”_

_“Does it count as ‘advice’ still if I change it to an order instead?”_

_“Nora!”_

_“Pyrrha! You can do it! Just swoop right in for it!”_

“I don’t see anything,” Jaune said at last, perplexed. “What did you see?”

Pyrrha was back in her seat in a flash. “Oh, probably just a bird or something. Maybe I was too caught up in my thoughts and imagined it…”

“Oh. Huh. Well, that’s possible, I think?” Jaune crumpled up his empty cup and tossed it into a nearby trash bin. “Score! Hey, one thing right out of the day isn’t bad.”

She made a halfhearted toss and missed the trash with her own discarded cup. “Look, you did better than I did.”

“That wasn’t a _real_ toss. Here.” Jaune retrieved it for her and pressed it back into her hands. She arched her eyebrows at him again. “Try it one more time, for real.”

Pyrrha did as she was told and easily made the shot. When she looked over at Jaune, she saw that Nora was being dragged back to Beacon’s dorms by a sighing Ren; she sent the guy a silent prayer of thanks.

“How did you know?” she asked with quirked lips.

“Because you can do anything, and that _includes_ being great at trash balling,” he said with great conviction. Jaune paused, however, and ruffled his damp hair. “I was thinking about that though…You told me once, around the dance, that you’re always surrounded by people who praise and support you, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I know I always say it’s like you’re invincible and can do anything in the world, but…even if you _can’t_ do something, that’s not going to change my opinion of you. I can promise you that. I, uh…wow, this sounded better in my head…I just wanted you to know that in case you ever felt pressured to be _perfect_ or something?”

Pyrrha bit her tongue and instantly regretted it because of how it was already sore from the coffee scalding earlier.

_Tell him. Now’s the time. Tell him this is why you love him._

“Sorry if I—“

“ _Thank you_ ,” Pyrrha interrupted, reaching across the table to grab his wrist. His eyes jolted down toward their hands now, but she continued. “Just…Just consider it like our practice session earlier. Even if we both fall, we can pull each other up, right?”

Jaune nodded, touching his fingers lightly to the grip she had on his wrist.

They lingered there for a long and gentle moment, his hand descending to entirely fold over hers.

She wanted to tell him. And she might’ve, if it wasn’t for the sudden shudder of thunder directly overhead.

“Wh-Whoa! Guess we really should get inside, huh?”

The moment broken, they both jumped apart.

“Right, let’s get back to the dorm then,” Pyrrha replied as Jaune opened his umbrella and invited her under it. Side by side, they made their way up the path and back to the Beacon buildings proper. The pair were walking so close to one another that their shoulders brushed, and Pyrrha didn’t bother to hide the smile she sent Jaune’s way.

True to his nature, he laughed sheepishly and returned it.

~***~

“I’m changing straight out of these clothes and into my PJs, because man, is it _freezing_ ,” Jaune said as they stood outside of their room’s door. His umbrella was busily dripping a puddle onto the carpet as he shook it out for the thirteenth time. It was as if the thing _produced_ water.

Excited barking belonging to Zwei, Ruby’s dog, sounded from within Team RWBY’s abode. Ruby could be heard trying to calm him as Blake’s muffled voice mumbled something undoubtedly sarcastic.

“That’s not a bad idea, since we don’t have any classes until tomorrow afternoon. I think I’ll get a head-start on some schoolwork while I’ve got the time…”

Pyrrha reached for the knob, but Jaune stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. She gave him a quizzical look.

Resting the umbrella against the door, Jaune took in a _deep_ breath, and—

Pulled her into an embrace.

They were both chilled to the bone and looked as if they had just forded a river in Forever Fall, but Jaune’s skin was warm beneath his damp shirt, and he pulled her close with such an air of security and kindness that Pyrrha was lost. It was only belatedly that she managed to return the gesture, ducking her head into his shoulder and inhaling the scent of rain—the _why_ didn’t matter so much at the moment.

It felt nice. It felt so, _so_ nice.

“Since Nora and Ren weren’t interested,” he said with a faint chuckle near her ear. “I thought I’d give you today’s group hug instead.”

“Jaune…”

He pulled back at last, wearing the most self-conscious smile she had ever seen in her life, like he was afraid he’d ruined something with that simple embrace that meant _so much more_ to Pyrrha than just that.

It was endearing.

She reached out and put a hand on his arm, hoping her own smile said everything she couldn’t yet find the strength to say.

“Nora was right; you really _are_ the best at planning.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love this ship?? It is my ship. My. Ship. I had another part of this planned but felt as if it got long enough, so there's a possible series of fics coming out on these two if I can get the time. I hope you enjoyed the read!


End file.
